Fellow Profile
CARMELO RUIZ MARRERO
 Carmelo Ruiz Marrero, ELP Fellow 2003-2004, is a freelance journalist who has written stories for E Magazine, Grist Magazine, the New York Daily News, Interpress Service, Corporate Watch and the Earth Island Journal.
What types of stories do you write?
In my freelance writing, I do mostly environmental articles, my strongest interest being food issues - biotechnology, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering. Also, for the past seven years, I worked for an alternative newspaper in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Claridad, where I wrote environmental stories but covered other issues as well, such as Puerto Rico's contribution to jazz music, Walmart and small retailers in Puerto Rico, corporate power, the pharmaceutical industry, and the politics of free trade and the proposed free trade area of the Americas. Even when I'm not writing about strictly environmental subjects, I look for the environmental angle.
I am in the process of finishing my first book, to be published in September 2004. The book touches on issues of biotechnology, globalization, and the clash of paradigms, as well as organic farming, property rights, biological warfare, and the spirit of resistance. I call it "Carmelo's big book on everything".
Another outlet I discovered recently is "blogging". Basically, a blog is a webpage in a diary format. I am trying to use my blog as an educational tool, in both English and Spanish, on issues of biotechnology, globalization, and agriculture. I see it as a way to convey lots of different content through a new medium.
What are some of the key environmental challenges facing Puerto Rico?
The biggest issue that I'm aware of every day is sprawl. It's really difficult to describe it - one has to fly over the metro area of San Juan to see the rate at which forests, rivers, mountains, and farmland have been destroyed to make way for suburbia, highways, and shopping malls. Most of the energy of the Puerto Rican environmental movement is spent fighting sprawl and protecting remaining green pockets. From a personal perspective, most of the natural places I enjoyed when I was young, only 30 years ago, don't exist anymore. The loss goes beyond scientific and biological impacts; it has a profound affect on the human psyche. As a journalist, I find it difficult to describe what has happened to our people and lands. When I ask citizens about it, they don't speak of scientific concepts; instead they convey a deep sense of loss.
Sprawl is not the only challenge we face, however; solid waste is another big concern. There simply is no room left here, and we keep producing more and more trash. It's gotten to the point where some people live literally surrounded by their own garbage because there is no where else to put it. Also, we're losing our fresh water supply rapidly due to urbanization and pollution. Just one source of water pollution is the landfills, none of which meet EPA regulations for containing run-off that leaches into ground water.
I talk to everyone about agriculture and genetic engineering, because food is related to so many other environmental issues. For example, if we fight urban sprawl, but instead create mono-culture industrial farms drenched in pesticides, I don't think we've really won.
In Puerto Rico, issues of genetic engineering hit home especially hard. According to the USDA and the EPA, Puerto Rico is one of the primary genetic engineering experimentation grounds in the world. Per capita, we have more biotechnology experiments being conducted here than anywhere else, with the possible exception of Hawaii.
As a journalist, how do you convey these complex issues?
Writing about genetic engineering and biotechnology can be a journalistic challenge. There's a double standard in genetic engineering where the industry will say that this is powerful new technology that will change everything for the better, but when skeptics bring up safety concerns, they will say it's just a continuation of agricultural methods that have been practiced for thousands of years. I believe it's important to stress that this is a new, untested technology. Although the great majority of the acreage devoted to biotech crops in the world today is commercial rather than experimental, merely testing these crops out in the field can have startling environmental consequences. A second point I focus on is that this isn't some "sci-fi" scenario. We are eating genetically modified foods, and have been for years without being told and with no environmental impact statements or health analyses.
I find that food is a good way to get people to think about connections. When I speak about genetic engineering, pesticides and other chemicals in our food, people sit up and listen. They want to know what they're eating. Once you show how these issues are interconnected with other environmental issues, people really "get it". Through speaking engagements, I try to reach many different groups - from churches to activists to others in the media - so I'm not always "preaching to the converted".
As a journalist, my space is often limited, so every time I write about these issues, I have to make it count. It's a challenging subject to cover in a short article, because I believe it's important to convey the scarier aspects of biotechnology but also to provide information and viewpoints from both sides of the debate. It's complex and there are no clear or certain answers.
What's your next project?
I recently attended the Maize and Biodiversity Symposium on genetically modified corn, organized by the North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, in Oaxaca, Mexico. That meeting has been a great launching point for talks I've given here in Puerto Rico on the connections between genetic engineering, hunger, poverty, and trade.
Also, I'm excited to be launching a new environmental radio show this year through my ELP Activity Fund project. I'm currently trying to find a radio station that will host the show for an affordable cost, but even if that doesn't come through my collaborators and I plan to record the show and syndicate it throughout the Spanish-speaking world. The show will build on my work on agriculture and biotechnology and will combine my journalistic and speaking interests through a medium that has the potential to reach many more people.
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